Hi, I have seen this particular seller list a number of supposed Tolkien Signed Editions over the past couple of years (many signed US Paperback Editions). In my humble opinion, not a real signature. The particular impression of the book listed (4th) was jointly issued by Unwin and Houghton Mifflin (joint imprints in any case) - and the book listed on Ebay has a US$ Price on the Inside Flap of the Dustjacket - So a Houghton Mifflin Edition. I doubt Tolkien signed too many US Editions. Just another piece of evidence making the signature likely not to be genuine. Regards. IMHO.

I'm not a handwriting expert, nor do I own a signed book, but one thing about this signature that stands out in my eyes is the 'K'. Comparing signatures from the www.tolkienlibrary.com website the upper diagonal part of the 'K' ( / ) flows from the vertical part of the 'k' ( l ) and the bottom diagonal (\ ) restarts the signature. However, in this signature it is the bottom diagonal that flows from the vertical and te top diagonal is added after the rest of the signature is has been completed.

Again, I'm not a handwriting expert and on first impressions tis signature looks quite natural and flowing I'm not totally convinced.

Maybe others who are in posession of an authentic signature can comment

One other reason why this sale is so tricky is because it is a private auction and most of the times these are selling fakes;

One of the reasons why i did not add too many true signatures on tolkienlibrary.com is because i suspected people to start copying the signatures there. At first I had made a list of much more signatures (starting to show the difference between the early autograph of Tolkien towards his final signatures...) but i never did finish that part of the article because I suspected it to bring even more fakes on the market.